Flight Crew
SMS Operations & Individual Responsibilities

Gold Aviation Services is a FAA Part 135 on-demand air charter operator based at KFLL, operating under South Florida FSDO-19. Our SMS is implemented under 14 CFR Part 5, the FAA's mandatory SMS regulation for Part 135 certificate holders.

The SMS is structured around four key roles:

• Accountable Executive (AE): ultimate accountability for the SMS. Has authority over resources required to implement and maintain the system. Signs the safety policy.
• Director of Safety (DOS): day-to-day management of the SMS. Administers the reporting system, manages the corrective action process, conducts audits, and maintains SMS records.
• Director of Maintenance (DOM): company authority for maintenance. Ensures maintenance-related hazards are addressed.

Safety Action Group (SAG): Meets regularly to review safety reports, assess risk, recommend corrective actions, and track open items to closure.

Safety Board: Chaired by the Accountable Executive. Meets quarterly to review safety performance data, SPI trends, audit results, and SAG recommendations. Provides direction on safety priorities and resource allocation.

The Gold Aviation voluntary safety reporting system is the primary mechanism for hazard identification. Submit a report for any safety concern — near-miss, hazard observation, operational error, equipment issue, or unsafe condition — at any time.

How to submit: Reports are submitted through FOS. The Director of Safety is your point of contact for all safety reports.

What to report:

• Any near-miss or unplanned event that could have resulted in injury, damage, or loss
• Any hazard you observe — in operations, maintenance, facilities, or process
• Errors you made or observed that could recur
• Organizational conditions (pressure, fatigue, communication failures) that are creating safety risk
• Anything that didn't feel right, even if nothing went wrong

What happens after you report:

1. Your report is received and acknowledged in FOS
2. The DOS reviews it and classifies it by hazard type and risk level
3. If corrective action is required, it is opened and assigned in FOS
4. The SAG reviews the report and monitors the corrective action to closure
5. You may be contacted for additional information — this is part of the process, not an investigation of you

The Flight Risk Assessment Tool (FRAT) is a mandatory pre-departure risk assessment required for every company flight leg. No flight may depart without a completed and submitted FRAT. The FRAT does not replace PIC judgment: it supplements it by requiring formal evaluation of defined risk factors and triggering escalation and approval requirements when risk thresholds are met.

Scoring methodology (CPP §10.3): The FRAT uses a binary methodology: each risk factor is either present (1) or absent (0). The cumulative number of selected risk factors determines the overall risk level across categories including weather, crew condition and experience, aircraft status, airport and environmental complexity, passenger or mission-related factors, and operational pressure factors.

Risk levels and required actions:

• Low risk: Operations may proceed. FRAT must be documented prior to departure.
• Medium risk: The DOS must be notified. Review contributing factors and implement mitigations. Do not depart without approval from the Chief Pilot or Director of Safety. Mitigations and approval must be documented.
• High risk: Do not depart without operational control approval. A mitigation plan and crew briefing are required and must be documented. The Director of Safety must be notified.

Multi-leg flights: For multi-leg or extended duty periods, the FRAT must be re-evaluated prior to each departure when conditions have changed: including changes in weather, crew status (rest, fatigue, illness), aircraft status (MEL/CDL items), or airport/environmental conditions. A new FRAT record is created for each re-evaluation.

SIC delegation (CPP §10.2G-H): The PIC may delegate FRAT completion and submission to the SIC. However, the PIC retains full responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, and execution of the FRAT. When delegated, the PIC must review the FRAT before departure, verify the identified risk factors accurately reflect actual conditions, and confirm all required mitigations, notifications, and approvals are complete. Both crew members maintain awareness of the assessed risk level: the SIC must raise discrepancies to the PIC before departure.

Oversight and performance: The Director of Safety administers the FRAT program, monitors data trends, and integrates findings into the SMS. The Chief Pilot ensures pilot compliance and supports escalation discipline. FRAT completion rate of 95% (FRATs completed per legs flown) is a Gold Aviation Safety Performance Indicator: meaning your FRAT compliance is tracked at the organizational level and reported to the Safety Board.

Just culture in flight operations means you can report errors, near-misses, and hazards without fear of automatic discipline. But it also means you are expected to use that protection responsibly: to surface safety information that helps the organization learn.

In practice, this means:

• If you make a mistake: report it. A self-reported error is handled very differently from a discovered unreported one.
• If you observe a colleague engaging in at-risk behavior: report it. The just culture framework applies to your report, not just your own conduct.
• If you feel pressure (from scheduling, dispatch, or management) that is causing you to take shortcuts: that is reportable. Organizational pressure is a systemic hazard.
• Removal from duty for fitness concerns is a protected act. If you remove yourself from a flight for safety reasons, that decision is supported by Gold Aviation Services' safety policy.

As a pilot at Gold Aviation Services, your SMS responsibilities under 14 CFR Part 5 and the Gold Aviation SMS Manual include:

• FRAT completion: complete the Flight Risk Assessment Tool before every flight. Medium risk requires DOS notification and documented approval. High risk requires DOS notification and operational control approval before departure.
• Fitness to fly: you have a personal and regulatory obligation to assess your own fitness before every flight. Fatigue, illness, medication effects, and psychological stress are disqualifying if they impair your ability to perform your duties safely. I'M SAFE is a useful self-assessment tool.
• Hazard and incident reporting: submit a safety report for any near-miss, unusual occurrence, unstable approach, go-around, ATC deviation, bird strike, or other safety-relevant event. Same-day reporting is strongly preferred.
• CRM and assertiveness: speak up. If you observe something concerning at any phase of flight, regardless of who is PIC, you are expected and empowered to raise it.
• Training: complete all assigned SMS training modules by the due date.

Understanding what happens after a report is submitted reinforces why reporting matters and what to expect if you are involved in a follow-up.

When a safety report or audit finding identifies a hazard that requires action, a corrective action is opened in FOS. Corrective actions are the mechanism Gold Aviation Services uses to document, assign, track, and close the response to identified safety risks.

The corrective action process:

1. Initiation: DOS opens a corrective action in FOS, assigns a number, links it to the originating report or finding, and documents the hazard and risk level
2. Investigation: root cause is identified and contributing factors are documented
3. Assignment: a specific action is assigned to a responsible party with a due date
4. Implementation: the assigned party completes the corrective action
5. Verification: DOS verifies the action was completed and effective
6. Closure: the corrective action is closed with documentation of the action taken and effectiveness verification; the SAG reviews and concurs

You may be contacted by the DOS during the investigation phase for additional information. This is a normal part of the process — it is not an investigation of you personally, and it does not affect your just culture protections.